Cuba has never been regarded as a cinematic capital, thus it's a bit offputting to find so accomplished a film as Plaff! emerging from Castro-land. Deliberately kaleidescopic, with scenes edited out of sequence, the film involves a superstitious woman at odds with her science-oriented daughter-in-law. When the younger woman threatens the older one's complacent belief in portents and talismans, the older one plots the younger's demise. The film maps the older lady's increasing withdrawal from all vestiges of reality--hence the film's full title, Plaff! Or Too Afraid of Life (Desmasiado Miedo A La Vida, O Plaff) Director Juan Carlos Tobio also cowrote the stream-of-consciousness screenplay for this ramschackle but irresistible film.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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